Starting a running program is the biggest challenge an overweight person can ever take. In fact, running is hard for everyone, overweight or not. The high impact nature of running can lead to a bundle of injuries and health troubles. No doubt about that. However, starting and keeping running the right way can help you prevent much of the trouble.
When it comes to injuries, the activity of running is not solely to blame. In fact, the root cause of most running injuries is doing too much too soon. Or what is known as overtraining. Therefore, if you learn how to avoid it, you’ll definitely get the most out of your running program while steering clear of injuries and disappointments.
Therefore, here are 3 training guidelines to help you run injury and hassle free:
Build Gradually
Most beginner runners encounter overtraining when doing trying to run too much too soon at a quick of pace. This usually leads to fatigue, pain, injury and eventually dropping the whole training program. Nevertheless, starting running slowly and building intensity up gradually can keep the monster of overtraining at bay.
For instance, if you’re a new comer to the sport of running, then you should start by going for 4 or 5 long walks and see where your fitness level is at. Later on, and only when confident enough, you could introduce short running intervals into your walking. You can do this by following a walk-run-walk pattern. This useful training strategy can boost your fitness level without the risk of injury or burnout.
The length of each running interval depends on your current fitness level. Most beginners may start with a 30-45 running intervals and incrementally build on that. Make your training challenging but do not go overboard. And as the training progresses forward, you’ll definitely get stronger and fitter, and be able to run that 10K distance without much huffing and puffing.
Check Your Heart Rate
Checking your pulse is critical for healthy training and performance. Firstly, regular heart rate checkups can help you spot the nightmare of overtraining before it gets any worse. For instance, if you’ve found out that your heart rate is higher—6 to 12 beats per minute—then its normal rate, then the chances of overtraining is high. No panic here. You may just need to cut back on your training load or take a couple days off. When your heart rate is back to its normal pace, you could resume the training again.
Secondly, any drop in your heart rate is a sign of progress. See, as you exercise more, your heart will get stronger and be more efficient at pumping blood through your body and working muscles, and thus it’ll need less beats per minute to do the same work for you as before. Therefore, don’t panic if you learned that your heart rate is lower then before. In fact you ought to welcome it. That’s a sign that you’re heading on the right direction.
Recovery
When starting a running program—or any other training program—your body needs to go through an adaptation process so it can readjust to the training load and get stronger for the future workout. However, if you don’t take ample recovery, this critical natural process won’t take place. This is a recipe to disaster. Skipping a recovery will only leave you weak and burned out.
Therefore, make sure to space out your training days with a recovery day. Take more than one if you still feel (truly) fatigued, experience intense pain or have a spiky heart rate. Resume the training when you feel fully recovered.
These 3 training guidelines are very helpful. However, you can only take advantage of them when you start putting into practice what you’ve just learned. So take action now and remember to stay within your skill level.
About The Author
David DACK is a runner and an established author on weight loss, motivation and fitness.
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